The Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability is teaming up with Community Renewal Society for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Faith in Action Assembly & Mayoral Candidate Forum so that we can let our candidates know we care deeply about police accountability. RSVP here.

Time/Date: Monday, January 21st, 9am-12pm
Location: Liberty Baptist Church (4849 South King Drive)

Join Avodah, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Mishkan Chicago, Repair the World and Silverstein Base Hillel for our third annual Chicago Justice Series. This year we will focus on themes of safety and security through a Jewish lens: examining our relationships as Jews to law enforcement historically and today, exploring local work on police accountability, and thinking about how various identities we hold may impact how we think about our own safety.

The series will begin with a public kickoff event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the evening and will continue with cohort-based learning monthly until the end of May. Looking forward to seeing you for a meaningful discussion over a delicious (and free!) dinner. Please RSVP.

If you are interested in being a part of the cohort for the entire series, please email Hannah Arwe at hannaharwe@jcua.org.

If you are interested in getting more involved with JCUA‘s campaign work on police accountability, this is a great way to do so. Committee meetings are for members only, so if you haven’t yet, join us!

Join ICIRR members at our annual summit, where we will launch our 2019 legislative platform!

Redefining Citizenship: A New Vision for Collective Liberation

Join us for a rally, accountability session, and breakout sessions where we will be challenging the traditional notion of citizenship. What does citizenship for all mean? And how do we come to a more inclusive understanding of what it means to be a citizen in our society?

The summit is our time to unite around issues that are important to us, and get ready to fight and win our campaigns for this year!

AES is hosting a conversation on how Illinois can support immigrants through upcoming pieces of legislation from ICIRR’s 2019 platform. It will take place from 10:30 – 11:30 am on Sunday, Feb 10 in the Rose Crown Room at Anshe Emet.

Join us on Monday, February 18th at 6:30 pm at SketchPad (4700 N. Ravenswood Ave.) for our ~monthly Immigration Committee meeting. If you are new to the committee, or want a refresher, there will be a brief orientation at 6:15 pm. We look forward to seeing you there!

*Please note: we have a slightly longer RSVP form this time! Please hang in there as we update our database system!

Join Avodah, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Mishkan Chicago, Repair the World and Silverstein Base Hillel for our third annual Chicago Justice series. This year we will focus on themes of safety and security through a Jewish lens: examining our relationships as Jews to law enforcement historically and today, exploring local work on police accountability, and thinking about how various identities we hold may impact how we think about our own safety.

Register below for the series, which costs $25 a person and includes dinners at all sessions. If cost is a barrier to participation we are happy to work with you – we want this space to be accessible to everyone. Email Rabbi Megan (rabbimegan@gmail.com) and we will make it work!

What do safety and security look like to each of us? What could it look like? In the opening session of the cohort we will begin by situating ourselves in what makes us feel safe, how our intersecting identities impact that and in how we want to build Jewish community as a cohort addressing safety and security. We will engage with and reflect on sources from historians, thinkers and leaders that bring up different frameworks for understanding community safety and accountability.

Thursday March 28, 6:30-8:30

What does Judaism teach us about safety? In this session we will bring in Jewish texts of different kinds to examine what our own traditions, values and practices tell us about the creation of safety, the role of police and other accountability systems. We will reflect upon what these mean for us now and how we want to continue unpacking meanings of safety through a Jewish lens.

Tuesday April 23, 6:30-8:30

How do systems of policing and security impact those within them?In our third session we will develop an analysis of policing and safety that understands the systemic impact police have on society as well as the experiences of those who operate within the police system. We will engage with resources and text that illuminate how a system like the Chicago Police Department functions and how those working within it understand their role in building community safety.

Thursday May 9, 6:30-8:30

Where do we go from here? Before our closing Shabbat on May 31st, this final session will provide space to think about how we bring what we have learned in this series to our daily lives. What this looks like will depend on the flow of the conversation thus far in the series. We will learn about ongoing campaign work around police accountability including ways to get involved and take action. There will also be space to brainstorm together about community safety planning in Jewish spaces, and other opportunities to continue unpacking issues around safety and security.

We will be heading down to Springfield on Tuesday, March 5 to kickoff our fights for KIFTA and RISE in Springfield this year. We’ll rally in the rotunda with the rest of our partners in the Campaign for a Welcoming IL, and then we will try to talk to our state legislators to secure their support for our bills.

We are working to coordinate transportation for everyone who is interested in attending. Please reach out to Anna Rubin (anna@jcua.org) ASAP to ensure you have a seat waiting for you on March 5!

JCUA has been busy over the past couple of months gearing up to the Feb 26th elections – from the voter guide and attending two Mayoral Candidates Forums to our congregation partners talking about the importance of the upcoming election from the Bimah. And there are still more opportunities to take action before the April 2nd run off elections.

That’s why we’re going to have another Civic Engagement Meeting:

We will debrief the work we’ve done, discuss election results, and look ahead to opportunities for the run-offs.

JCUA is building a team in Highland Park, Highwood, Deerfield, Northbrook, and surrounding areas to bring a Jewish voice to important state-level immigration policies that their coalition partners in the Campaign for a Welcoming IL are working to pass this year. Our hope is to have a committed core team that will meet regularly with our state legislators (Julie Morrison, Bob Morgan, and Jonathan Carroll), both in-district and in Springfield, to work on getting our 2019 legislative platform passed. This team will also coordinate efforts to bring in the broader Jewish community’s support when strategic, through postcard campaigns, phone banks, and other actions.

On March 10th, at Steve Keen’s home in Highland Park, we’ll be meeting as a team with Rep. Bob Morgan to talk about the district and the community we want to build there, as well as about our 2019 bills. We will then take what we learn in that meeting to begin to draft an arc of actions from March – May for this North Suburban Organizing Team. Join us! You can RSVP here (address sent upon RSVP), and reach out to Anna Rubin (anna@jcua.org) with any questions.

At this gathering we will continue to build relationships across congregations, dig into some questions that have been coming up for several of our partners (like: how do you track and keep volunteers and participants engaged long term??), and share best practices around recent and upcoming congregation justice events, with an eye towards Passover programming. Join us!

We are excited to celebrate this topsy-turvy holiday of joy and darkness with you all. You can sign up for a potluck item here and RSVP for the event here.

We are also encouraging folks to bring friends or community members to this meeting who you think might be interested in JCUA’s work. We hope it will be an opportunity for new people to meet the JCUA community.

The meeting will be from 6:15 until 8:00 PM at SketchPad (4700 N. Ravenswood Ave, Suite B – door on Leland). There will be an orientation for first time attendees at 6:00 PM.

Please note that JCore meetings are for JCUA members. Sign up for membership at jcua.org/membership

Join Avodah, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Mishkan Chicago, Repair the World and Silverstein Base Hillel for our third annual Chicago Justice series. This year we will focus on themes of safety and security through a Jewish lens: examining our relationships as Jews to law enforcement historically and today, exploring local work on police accountability, and thinking about how various identities we hold may impact how we think about our own safety.

Register below for the series, which costs $25 a person and includes dinners at all sessions. If cost is a barrier to participation we are happy to work with you – we want this space to be accessible to everyone. Email Rabbi Megan (rabbimegan@gmail.com) and we will make it work!

What do safety and security look like to each of us? What could it look like? In the opening session of the cohort we will begin by situating ourselves in what makes us feel safe, how our intersecting identities impact that and in how we want to build Jewish community as a cohort addressing safety and security. We will engage with and reflect on sources from historians, thinkers and leaders that bring up different frameworks for understanding community safety and accountability.

Thursday March 28, 6:30-8:30

What does Judaism teach us about safety? In this session we will bring in Jewish texts of different kinds to examine what our own traditions, values and practices tell us about the creation of safety, the role of police and other accountability systems. We will reflect upon what these mean for us now and how we want to continue unpacking meanings of safety through a Jewish lens.

Tuesday April 23, 6:30-8:30

How do systems of policing and security impact those within them?In our third session we will develop an analysis of policing and safety that understands the systemic impact police have on society as well as the experiences of those who operate within the police system. We will engage with resources and text that illuminate how a system like the Chicago Police Department functions and how those working within it understand their role in building community safety.

Thursday May 9, 6:30-8:30

Where do we go from here? Before our closing Shabbat on May 31st, this final session will provide space to think about how we bring what we have learned in this series to our daily lives. What this looks like will depend on the flow of the conversation thus far in the series. We will learn about ongoing campaign work around police accountability including ways to get involved and take action. There will also be space to brainstorm together about community safety planning in Jewish spaces, and other opportunities to continue unpacking issues around safety and security.